Keeping three week old chicks
At poultry farms, you can buy both day-old and three-week-old chicks. Three-week-old chicks raised in a hatchery are vaccinated against Newcastle disease and other viral diseases. For three weeks they were kept on a "starter" compound feed and accumulated good potential for further growth. After acquiring such chicks, you need to provide them with proper conditions of detention:
- choose a suitable food base;
- insulate brooder or equip it in a warm room;
- install nipple drinkers in the aviary where chickens are kept.
Chicks can be kept on a mesh floor. This will make it easier to clean the coop or individual cages. When keeping chicks on sawdust, the litter will need to be changed daily, but with such a litter the chicks will be warmer.
Keeping your brooder clean is very important. Chickens bought from a poultry farm are prone to intestinal diseases for which there is no vaccine. They can get sick, for example, with coccidiosis.
Feeding base for chickens
From three weeks of age, chickens must be transferred from the "starting" compound feed to the fattening ration. This feed contains a large amount of protein and fiber, which accelerates the growth of the chick's muscle mass, and also has a good effect on the development of the chicken's digestive system.
The composition of the "starting" compound feed for chickens is the same, with the exception of some additives. Fattening grain mixtures for broilers, meat-and-meat breeds of hens and laying hens are different. Manufacturers produce compound feed that is suitable for only one type of chicken.
Broilers need compound feed with a high protein content and premixes - biological additives. Laying hens need a grain mixture with the addition of calcium, and hens of meat-and-meat breeds digest well compound feed with an increased amount of fiber.
Insulation of the house and conditions of detention
In the house, keep the temperature at 22ABOUTFrom to 28ABOUTC. Chicks may be kept in a common enclosure with other poultry species, provided each species is enclosed by a net.
To facilitate the keeping of chickens, the house can be placed in a greenhouse. Its supports are convenient to use for installing a chain-link mesh.
Nipple drinkers will reduce the consumption of drinking water and exclude its pollution. The nipple can be screwed into a 5 liter water bottle to create a homemade nipple drinker.